1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to online transactions and more particularly to the providing of content to facilitate online transactions.
2. Related Art
Customers routinely search for and purchase products and services through electronic communications with online merchants over electronic networks such as the Internet. During the course of these transactions, customers may provide payment in various ways including, for example, credit cards, electronic fund transfers, and other payment techniques offered by service providers.
Unfortunately, it is often difficult or inconvenient for customers to determine whether sufficient funds are available to make a desired purchase while visiting a merchant's website. For example, it is typically incumbent on customers to access their personal financial records, or visit a separate financial website in order to ascertain the current account balance associated with a desired method of payment. These additional steps can detract from customer online experiences and inconvenience consumers when making online purchases.
For merchants, such inconveniences can translate into potential lost sales to the extent that otherwise willing customers are deterred from completing online transactions. In particular, if customers are forced to visit other websites or retrieve locally-stored records before engaging in online transactions, customers may become distracted or attracted to a merchant's competitors while taking such actions.